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While 99.99% of people who were following election results yesterday were looking at the New Hampshire Presidential Primary, yesterday was also election day for the North Orange County Community College District, Trustee Area 3.

I had written about the candidates in this election here and about how the special election came to be here.

Cypress School Board Member Steve Blount (R) defeated La Palma Councilman Steve Hwangbo (R). They both came in far ahead of Southern California Edison Contract Manager Daniel Billings (NPP), who had been appointed to the NOCCCD seat until his appointment was overturned by petition in favor of the special election, and Buena Park Library Board Member Al Salehi (NPP), who had led the petition effort to overturn the Billings appointment and force this special election for the seat.

NORTH ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT
Governing Board Member, Trustee Area 3, Short Term

Completed Precincts: 82 of 82

Vote Count

Percentage

STEPHEN T. BLOUNT

2,381

35.6%

STEVE HWANGBO

2,066

30.9%

DANIEL D. BILLINGS

1,246

18.6%

ALAN “AL” SALEHI

990

14.8%

Blount’s entire margin of victory came from the city of Cypress. While he defeated Hwangbo in Anaheim and Buena Park, it was his Cypress landslide that enabled him to overcome Hwangbo’s massive lead in La Palma.

City

Blount

Hwangbo

Billings

Salehi

Anaheim

342

238

133

100

Buena Park

1087

906

738

691

Cypress

577

250

180

109

La Palma

367

657

186

86

Blount beat Hwangbo in Anaheim by 104 votes (12.8%) and in Buena Park by 181 votes (5.2%). His 327-vote (29.3%) landslide over Hwangbo in Cypress was the key to overcoming Hwangbo’s 290-vote landslide (22.4%) in La Palma over Blount.

In Anaheim, Blount won 42.1% while Hwangbo won 29.3%.

In Buena Park, Blount won 31.8% while Hwangbo won 26.6%.

In Cypress, Blount won 51.7% while Hwangbo won 22.4%.

In La Palma, Blount won 28.3% while Hwangbo won 50.7%.

Billings was a consistent and distant third in all four cities while Salehi was a consistent fourth in all four cities.

There’s a certain irony that Salehi financed the effort to overturn the Billings appointment by petition to cause the special election, yet Salehi came in last and Billings came in third.

Filing has closed for the North Orange County Community College District Special Election to fill the vacancy left when Area 3 Trustee Donna Miller (D) resigned on June 30 just seven months after being re-elected to a four-year term. Miller had been on the Board for nearly 19 years.

Four people took out papers to run for the seat, and all four returned them and qualified for the ballot. In alphabetical order, they are (with their party affiliation and ballot designation):

Exact ballot order will be determined by a lottery by the Secretary of State later this morning.

Daniel D. Billings

Married to a high school science teacher, Billings works for Southern California Edison. He was the appointee to the seat until Salehi overturned his appointment by petition. A graduate of Fullerton College, he earned degrees from Whittier College and Azusa Pacific University; he also obtained a certificate at UCI.

Billings does not list any endorsements but does note his unanimous appointment by the NOCCCD Board.

Stephen T. Blount

A member of the Cypress School Board since 2010, Blount is a corporate controller. He was a Democrat until 2014, when he reregistered as a Republican. He was the Democrats’ nominee for the 67th Assembly District against Assemblyman Jim Silva (R) in 2008. Holding a certificate from Cypress College, he earned degrees from Biola University and Azusa Pacific University.

He notes endorsements from Coast Community College District Trustee Jim Moreno (D) and Centralia School District Board President Steve Harris (NPP). Oddly, he also notes endorsements from several appointed staff: Cypress School District Superintendent. Normally, staff do not endorse in political races because of the neutral position their offices are supposed to hold.

A La Palma City Councilman since 2010, Hwangbo is a businessman and engineer. He was the top vote-getter in his 2014 re-election, coming in more than 13% ahead of the second vote-getter. A community college graduate, he earned a degree at UCLA before going on to USC.

NOCCCD Trustee Area 3 consists of the entire City of La Palma, most of the City of Buena Park, the City of Cypress north of Orange Avenue, and two portions of Anaheim (one north of Ball Road and west of Beach Boulevard; the other north of La Palma Avenue and west of Magnolia Avenue).

Five people applied to fill the vacancy in Trustee Area 3. In four rounds of voting on August 25:

In the first round of voting, the trustees voted: 3 votes for George O’Hara (R), 2 votes for Daniel Billings (NPP), and 1 vote for Jon Hultman (R).

In the second and third rounds, George O’Hara and Daniel Billings each got 3 votes.

In the fourth round, the NOCCCD trustees voted to appoint Daniel Billings.

Billings was to hold the seat until November 2016, when the seat would be up for a two-year short-term election. The seat would then resume a regular four-year term in the November 2018 election.

However, Salehi, who the trustees did not support, then used Education Code 5091 and hired petition circulators to get signatures from 1.5% of registered voters within 30 days of the appointment, which invalidated the appointment (removing Billings from office) and triggered a special election. (1.5% of registered voters in NOCCCD Trustee Area 3 is 799 valid signatures.)

Salehi is a colorful figure:

Last month, the Orange County Registerreported that the Orange County Registrar of Voters successfully sued Salehi for $4,248 for not paying for his candidate statement in 2014.

The Laguna Beach Coastline Pilotreported that Salehi pulled papers for Laguna Beach City Council and Laguna Beach Unified School District in 2010, but on the last day of filing, he registered to vote in Buena Park and filed to run for the Buena Park Library District, where he realized he would be unopposed, as the second candidate to file for two seats.

Salehi has made no fewer than 8 unsuccessful bids for elected office:

1996: Laguna Beach Unified School District (winning 11% and coming in last)

1998: Laguna Beach Unified School District (winning 5.7% and coming in sixth out of seven)

2000: Laguna Beach Unified School District (winning 6.5% and coming in last)

2004: Irvine Unified School District (winning 4.8% of the vote and coming in seventh out of eight)

2010: United States Senate (winning 27% of the American Independent Party vote and coming in last in the AIP primary)

2012: Buena Park City Council (winning 9.5% of the vote and coming in fourth out of eight)

2014: United States Congress, 45th District (winning 2.6% of the vote and coming in last)

2014: Buena Park City Council (winning 12.1% of the vote and coming in fourth out of eight)

On June 30, North Orange County Community College District Trustee Donna Miller (D) resigned just seven months after being re-elected to a four-year term.

Five people applied to fill the vacancy in Trustee Area 3, including Daniel Billings (NPP) and Buena Park Library District Trustee Al Salehi (NPP). The NOCCCD Board appointed Billings unanimously on August 25. Billings would hold the seat until November 2016, when the seat would be up for a two-year short-term election. The seat would then resume a regular four-year term in the November 2018 election.

Salehi then circulated a petition under Education Code 5091, which allows an appointment to be invalidated by a petition of 1.5% of registered voters submitted within 30 days of the appointment, which would then trigger a special election. (1.5% of registered voters in NOCCCD Trustee Area 3 is 799 valid signatures.)

County Superintendent of Schools Al Mijares (R) must call the special election for a Tuesday within 130 days of certification of the petition (which occurred on Tuesday), so the special election for NOCCCD Trustee Area 3 will likely take place in late January or early February (no later than Tuesday, February 9).

NOCCCD Trustee Area 3 consists of the entire City of La Palma, most of the City of Buena Park, City of Cypress north of Orange Avenue, and two portions of Anaheim (one north of Ball Road and west of Beach Boulevard; the other north of La Palma Avenue and west of Magnolia Avenue).

Besides Salehi, rumored candidates include 21-year-old Centralia School District Trustee Connor Traut (D), Centralia School District Trustee (and former La Palma Councilman) Henry Charoen (R), La Palma Councilman Steve Hwangbo (R), and Anaheim Union High School District Trustee (and former La Palma Councilman) Brian O’Neal (R). (Update 10/27: This list inadvertently left off Billings; OC Political regrets the error. O’Neal sent an irate email denying any interest in the seat.)

In both 2012 and 2014, Salehi came in fourth out of eight for Buena Park City Council after moving into the city in 2010. He won 2.4% of the vote when he came in fourth in the primary for the 45th Congressional District (on the other side of the county, where he had zero name ID) behind now-Congresswoman Mimi Walters (R), Drew Leavens (D), and now-Mission Viejo Councilman Greg Raths (R).

If the election is conducted as an all-mail ballot election (aka all absentee ballot election), NOCCCD taxpayers would pay $168,000-$197,000 for the costs of the election.

I was working on a database of the part affiliation of all Orange County local elected officials. Finally, I have completed the project with all of the special districts and county seats being added. I also fixed some errors in the previous versions (here, here, and here) and have combined the database into one post.

We have added a button on the menu bar for our readers to always be able to access this database and use it for whatever research/political needs that they may have. Due to the length of th epost you are going to have to click the below link to read the rest of the post.

The newest blogger on this site had a post go up early this morning that gave an analysis of the 65th Assembly District that had everything but reality included in it. As someone that lives in the 65th Assembly District I can think of at least 3 candidates that would finish ahead of Young Kim and Henry Charoen. 2 of these candidates are already rumored to be running.

Steve Hwangbo- La Palma Councilman

Bruce Whitaker- Fullerton Councilman

Lucille Kring- Anaheim Councilwoman

Miller Oh likely would have been the favorite to be the nominee in 2014 had he not been charged with lying to avoid paying child support. This story makes it unlikely that he will even consider entering into the race to even test the waters.

Chris Norby was also rumored to be running to take back his old seat but my reaction to hearing this was that it would be a disaster. Norby was a train wreck that carried enough baggage to cost him a Republican seat. Republicans need to find candidates that do not carry a lot of personal baggage if they want to gain back any revevancy in California.

Young Kim comes across as a political opportunist by moving to Fullerton seemingly for the sole purpose of running for AD 65. I remember a couple of other people from the ritzy part of Anaheim making a move to run for an office similar to AD 65 in 2010. Ask Harry Sidhu and Lorri Galloway how that move worked out for them.

Henry Charoen and Steve Hwangbo both have a tough battle coming from the smallest portion of AD 65 (La Palma), and they will both need to spend somewhere near $250,000 (at least) to advance into the November election agains Shron Quirk-Silva.

This leads me to believe that contrary to what Dominus might think Young Kim is far from being the front-runner.

On a side note what the heck is Long Pham thinking running for SD 34? I hope that he realizes that this will end no better than his bid for AD 68 (Mansoor), AD 72 (Allen), and all of the other races that he has thrown his name on the ballot for. Even Steve Rocco must think he is nuts for running in this race.

Please note that a couple of races could potentially change based on a close finish and not all votes being counted. This post will be added to our website in a permanent tab that we will be creating at the top of the site.

An invitation to Assemblyman Chris Norby’s fundraiser for the 65th Assembly District came in a while ago. It is called the “Day at the Races” fundraiser on Friday, August 17 from 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM. I was surprised to learn that the Los Alamitos Race Track isn’t in Los Alamitos, it’s in Cypress (in the 65th district). The 65th District is Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress, Fullerton, La Palma, and Stanton.

I saw the main speakers headlining the fundraiser were Congressman Ed Royce, Assemblyman Isadore Hall III, and Assemblyman Brian Nestande. Royce is the Congressman who covers most of Norby’s district. Nestande is a Riverside Republican. But Hall is a Compton Democrat!

I looked Hall and Nestande up since neither one of them is an OC guy, and I saw they are the Chair and Vice Chair of the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee. That boring-sounding committee is immensely powerfull, with power over “alcohol, Indian gaming, horseracing, gambling, tobacco, public records, open meetings laws, state holidays, outdoor advertising and emergency services/natural disasters.” If I remember my PoliSci classes right, this is one of the “juice” committees, so the Chair and Vice Chair of a “juice” committee are headlining the Norby fundraiser.

As Chair of the Governmental Organization Committee, Hall is one of the most powerful Democrats in the State Assembly. What a slap in the face to Sharon Quirk-Silva! She isn’t endorsed by the Speaker or the Assembly Majority Leader either. It looks like the Democrat leadership is abandoning Quirk-Silva. Norby’s endorsed by every Republican in the Assembly and Senate.

It’s not just Sacramento either, look at Orange County: Quirk-Silva has four current Councilmembers in the entire 65th District. Norby has every 65th District Mayor not named Quirk-Silva, even Stanton Democrat Carol Warren. Norby has every Mayor Pro Tem in AD-65. Quirk-Silva and Norby each have half of tiny La Palma (Norby has Mayor Henry Charoen and Mayor Pro Tem Steve Hwangbo while Quirk-Silva has Councilmen Ralph Rodriguez and Steve Shanahan; anybody know where Councilman Mark Waldman stands?). Other than La Palma, Norby is endorsed by the majority of every City Council in AD-65.

With the June Primary Election just around the corner, Atlas PAC has updated our list of endorsed candidates for local, state and national elected office. As always, we will continue to present to our membership candidates that practice our core values of limited government, free market, low taxation, and individual liberty.

Join us this month as we host a fundraising reception for the Stop the Special Interest Money Now Initiative featuring columnist Steve Greenhut and Chapman Law School Professor John Eastman. Please mark your calendar for our upcoming events and we hope to see you soon.

Atlas PAC Mission Statement

The Atlas PAC mission is to create an environment of business professionals that believe in the ideals of limited government, free market enterprise, low taxation, and individual liberty to associate, network, and socialize with like-minded individuals. Through this association, the Atlas PAC supports like-minded candidates and issues through its monetary and political support.

Atlas PAC Director Walter Myers III debates with an Occupy Los Angeles activist. Watch as they discuss what their protest movements represent as well as their respective sides’ take on taxes, government, and capitalism. Decide for yourself who the clear winner is for this debate.

About Atlas PAC

Atlas is a politically based membership organization made up of business, political, and community professionals who share a passion for free enterprise, limited government, reduced government regulatory burdens, low taxation, and individual liberty. Atlas furthers its ideals by funding candidates and causes who aggressively advocate the values of Atlas.

AD 65 was also available to avoid a circus atmosphere of having over 20 candidates competing for the 6 seats.

Credit goes to Meridian Pacific for posting these maps on their website.

The candidates include:

Baron Night– He is currently an incumbent member of the central committee and will likely be the lone Buena Park resident on the committee.

Greg Sebourn– He ran for Fullerton City Council back in the 2010 election and fell just short of winning one of the two seats that was up. He is also a candidate for Fullerton City Council in the recall election.

Henry Charoen– Currently a La Palma City Councilman and potentially a future candidate for the 65th Assembly District as he has already formed a committee.

Steve Hwangbo– Also a La Palma City Councilman and although he is a Republican he is not quite as solid of a vote on the City Council as Henry Charoen.

Samuel “Sam” Han– He is currently a Republican staffer for Assemblyman Don Wagner in the new AD 68 district.

Jerry Jackson– He is currently a sitting member of the OC GOP Central Committee. *Incumbent.

Sou Moua– I was not able to find any information about this individual.

Pat Shuff– She currently sits on the OC GOP Central Committee in this district and is a former Fullerton RWF President. *Incumbent.

Alexandria Coronado– She used to be a member of the Orange County Board of Education before she was narrowly defeated last election by David Boyd.

David John Shawver– He is currently a member of the Stanton City Council and a previous opponent of John Moorlach for public office.

Shawn Nelson– Orange County Supervisor representing the 4th district and he has been a solid vote so far. He is also a current member of the OC GOP Central Committee. *Incumbent.

The factors at play- In these races the most important factor is luck. What I examined when determining who would win was name ID, ballot designation, ballot placement, district statistics.

Looking at all the factors at play in this district I believe that the 6 winning candidates (In no particular order) will be:

This is simply a list of the candidates that qualified for the ballot along with their ballot designations. After the alphabetical lottery we will make some predictions on who we think will actually win these races.